Tag: Oscar Grant

Paul Mooney is one of Black comedy’s biggest breathing legends, long time partner with Richard Pryor. Two of his upcoming performances at the great Black Rep are benefits for SF Bay View – on Tuesday, Dec. 28, at both 7 and 9 p.m. What a great gift for Christmas or Kwanzaa! Be sure to say you’re supporting the Bay View when you reserve your tickets.

We, as members of activist and community organizations in the Bay Area of California, send our support and salute you for making history as your strike has become the largest prison strike in the history of this nation. We recognize the potential that your action has to improve the lives of millions subject to inhumane treatment in correctional facilities across this country.

Just days after Johannes Mehserle was given a mere two-year sentence for the cold-blooded murder of Oscar Grant (see “Token Sentence for Oscar Grant’s Killer: Anger in the Streets of Oakland”), another unarmed Black man has been killed by police in Oakland. On Monday, Nov. 8, two cops from the Oakland Police Department (OPD) shot and killed Derrick “Dee Dee” Jones, an act that drew immediate outrage.

Minister of Information JR talks with Jack Bryson, the father of two sons who were with Oscar Grant the night he was murdered on the Fruitvale BART platform on New Year’s 2009. They discuss Jack's fight for justice for Oscar, Johannes Mehserle's sentencing and how Oscar's murder has affected his family and close friends.

In the wake of the senseless acts of violence that have taken away the lives of Oscar Grant, Derrick Jones and countless other Black men, I’ve grown to feel numb.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets outside the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals here and around the world Nov. 9, demanding that Mumia Abu-Jamal must live and be free and that the U.S. must abolish the death penalty and end racist killings and brutality by police.

Eesuu is one of my favorite male visual artists in the Bay, and in my opinion he is one of the dopest in the country right next to Malik Seneferu and Jocelyn Goode. I have been a fan of his art for years. I love the themes that he creates from, as well as the vibrant colors that he uses in some of his pieces.

Hours after San Francisco Bay Area radio show host JR Valrey screened his documentary film, “Operation Small Axe,” about police brutality at a university in Philadelphia, daily newspapers in that city carried articles about two separate lawsuits filed against Philly police alleging brutality. “Police brutality is definitely not ‘isolated incidents,’ as officials always say after each new killing or beating by police,” said Valrey, host of the Block Report, a program aired on KPFA-FM, the Pacifica station in the Bay Area.

Queen Nyoka is an up and coming reggae artist out of the Bay who makes her words count when it comes to chanting down Babylon.

I was swept up and arrested Friday night in Oakland at the end of the Justice for Oscar Grant march. As usual, most Bay Area TV stations gave a factually awful – very pro-police – spin to what happened.

Another unarmed Black brother, Derrick Jones, 37, barbershop owner and father of an infant girl, met a violent death on Monday night, shot and killed by two Oakland police officers while “fleeing.” March for justice Thursday 3 p.m. from Bancroft & Seminary.

Police agencies from at least nine counties, plus Homeland Security, the FBI, CIA and DOJ descended upon Oakland. They were intent on demonizing the people to remove the focus from the unjust and outright farce of a sentence received by Johannes Mehserle. The people have a right to assemble, demonstrate, march and take a stand against a system that continuously oppresses, brutalizes and murders them. We demand the immediate release of all those arrested on Nov. 5 and dismissal of all charges. (Includes three videos)

Judge Robert Perry has sentenced former BART transit cop Johannes Mehserle to the minimum sentence of two years in state prison for the shooting death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant. Judge Perry gave double credit - 292 days - for his time served. Tune in KPFA 94.1FM or kpfa.org 4-6 p.m. for a special report on the Mehserle sentencing hosted by Minister of Information JR with Davey D and Sabrina Jacobs. Their guests include Cephus Johnson (Oscar's Uncle Bobby), Jack Bryson, John Burris and M1 of dead prez.

There is a something dangerous about the pervading view of justice for Oscar Grant that constrains the perception of injustice to the bullet in the back, the soft verdict, the light sentence. For an alternative view on the day of Mehserle's sentencing, Friday, Nov. 5, 4-6 p.m., tune in KPFA 94.1 FM for special coverage with guests Cephus Johnson, Oscar's Uncle Bobby; Jack Bryson, Oscar's friends' father; Oscar's family's attorney John Burris; journalists Dave Id and Thandisizwe Chimurenga; M1 of dead prez; and Askia Sabur, whose Philly police beating was, like Oscar's murder, caught on video.

With the upcoming sentencing of Johannes Mehserle on Nov. 5, the rebellions of January 2009 that brought about his arrest could very well be set off once more. And once again we expect to hear the mantra blaming "outside agitators."

Hard Knock Radio is a must-listen show broadcast weekdays on KPFA 94.1 FM at 4-5 p.m. On Oct. 26, the show kicked off with this historic conversation between host Davey D, Minister of Information JR and Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X.

Local 10 of the ILWU is calling for a labor and community rally on Saturday, Oct. 23, 12 noon, at City Hall, near 14th & Broadway in Oakland, to demand justice for Oscar Grant and the jailing of killer cops. Bay Area ports will shut down that day to stand with the Black community. Get ready for the rally Friday, Oct. 22, 6:30 p.m., with a screening of Minister of Information JR’s film ‘Operation Small Axe’ plus revolutionary art by Black Panther Minister of Culture Emory Douglas at the Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pine St., West Oakland.

Labor unions and community activists in the Bay Area and beyond have a responsibility to condemn the received view of police violence and to demand a modicum of justice for Oscar Grant. They can do so by responding to the call by the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 to unite on Saturday, Oct. 23, at Oakland City Hall in support of “jail for killer cops.”

Minister of Information JR speaks with Pam Africa about a secret memo signed by the U.S. members of the Steering Committee of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty that can be summed up as "throwing Mumia under the bus."

Community groups are denouncing an announcement today by the defense team for former BART officer Johannes Mehserle that they are seeking a retrial in the shooting death of unarmed Oscar Grant III.